


Rey of Green Gables

by Draco_sollicitus



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Anne of Green Gables AU, Character Death, Childhood to Young Adulthood, F/M, Finn is Diana, Fluff, More or less follows the plot of the first book so you know that means eventual, Poe is Gilbert, Rey is Anne, Slow Burn, time jumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 16:22:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21305018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: In the late spring of 18--, twins Luke and Leia take in an orphan from Hopetown. When they requested help for the summer, they were sure they had asked for a boy; their surprise when a scrawny, fierce girl comes off the train quickly gives way to true affection and fondness for Rey Kenobi, a strong-willed orphan who has suffered much in her eleven years.Her time in Avonlea is marked by both triumph and tragedy. As the years pass in Avonela, her best friend Finn Calrissian becomes a constant source of much joy and support, and the handsome, older Poe Dameron, a source of much consternation and competition.And, at the end of it all, Rey discovers a true home in Green Gables, learning every possible lesson about life and love.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 16
Kudos: 52





	Rey of Green Gables

**Author's Note:**

> **notes**  
mmm yeah, this is a Anne/Gilbert Damerey AU, hope that's okay with all of you. this is because there was a lot of gifsets of the miniseries on my dashboard tonight.
> 
> Join me on another WIP journey while I allow random thoughts I have in the shower become 50k word fics.

Now, it was commonly accepted that anything that passed by the front gate of Mrs. Amilyn Holdo would have to conform to the utmost standard; even the geese marched in front of her house with a uniform precision that should have been envied by the local guard. Nothing escaped her blue, keen gaze, and on that day in 18--, the peculiar sight of Mr. Luke Skywalker driving down that road into Avonlea with his buggy certainly did not avoid Mrs. Amilyn’s detection.

She trotted up the road not two minutes after Mr. Luke drove past, and walked up to the door of Green Gables with an enviable sort of confidence. With two smart raps, the door was opened, and Mrs. Leia Organa opened the door, elegant brow already arched.

“Hello, Leia,” Amilyn crooned, thin fingers tented together in a semblance of politeness. “How are you this fine morning?”

“What is it you’re wanting today, Amilyn?” Leia answered. She was a formidable woman of some fifty-odd years, a former beauty- who, in truth still carried a good deal of the quality- and a widow. A great sadness involving her wayward son had broken her heart two decades ago, and taken the life of her beloved husband. 

Since that day, she had lived on the property of Green Gables with her twin brother, Mr. Luke, and had become as stern and austere as the bluffs that stood on the edge of the island.

“Oh, Leia.” Amilyn smiled and stooped down slightly, giving herself the appearance of a curious bird. “I was wondering what made your dear brother take off down the road in such a state.”

“Ah, that business.” Leia huffed, knowing that Mrs. Amilyn would not take her leave without a piece of information to share. The town would know soon enough, she reasoned, so she could let her know the truth. “We’ve decided to take on a young man.”

“A young man,” Amilyn repeated, slowly, as though in shock. “A worker?”

“Of a sort, yes,” Leia stepped inside Green Gables now, and Amilyn followed, peering around the space as though attempting to memorize the layout. “He’s an orphan from over in Hopetown.”

“And you know nothing of him?” They crossed into the kitchen, and Leia did not look up as she fussed with the stove, her iron-grey braids shaking over her shoulders as she harrumphed at the question.

“No, my dear, but I can hear your concern.” Leia poured tea, and slid a cup towards her unwanted guest. “And I can assure you, Luke and I can handle ourselves.   
“Hmm.” Amilyn smiled over the rim of her cup, clearly not believing the other woman, but that was quite alright.

Leia believed in herself, and that was quite enough.

* * *

Mr. Luke returned two hours after Mrs. Amilyn’s visit, and he walked up to the door with his hat in hands, the buggy parked in front of Green Gables. “Leia?”

“Luke?” She opened the door and brushed her hands on her apron. “Did you bring the boy?”

“I think there’s been some kind of miscommunication,” Luke said steadily, his eyes as bright a blue as they’d been when he was the most handsome bachelor in Avonlea. 

“A miscommuni-” Leia stopped talking when the orphan-child climbed down from the buggy and stood in the lane, clothes covered in dust, a small parcel clutched in thin arms.

“A girl,” Leia whispered, her jaw setting in aggravation. “You brought me a girl, Luke Skywalker?”

She stomped down the steps, and came to a halt in front of the reed-thin child. “How old are you?”

“Eleven years old, ma’am,” she answered sharply, and Leia saw something flash in her hazel eyes. 

She was not quite a pretty child: no one would say that, not when confronted with the way her cheekbones stood out in her face, or the aggressive pronunciation of her freckles, splattered this way and that about her face and down her neck. There was a tan quality to her skin where it should have been fair, and her hair, while a nice enough colour, was pulled back from her thin face into a series of odd buns, clearly done up without a single woman’s assistance. 

“A girl,” Leia repeated, glaring at Luke over the child’s head. “A girl got off the train, and you let her onto the-”

“I am a girl,” the child said stubbornly. “But I can help. Mr. Luke said you needed someone strong. I  _ am  _ strong, ma’am, even if I don’t look it. And he said you need someone smart, and I was the smartest at the orphanage.”

As she gave her bold speech, Leia felt her eyes travel, almost unwillingly, down to the slip of a girl who stood so bravely in front of her, her jaw set, with clear anger written in her face. She grew slightly less confident with Leia looking at her, but she finished her speech with a still present air of determination, and Leia found something stirring in her heart that hadn’t moved since her husband died and she lost her son forever.

“Alright,” Leia said firmly. “Smart, and strong, and a girl.” Her new guest nodded. “...Do you have a name, child?”

“Rey,” the girl said, eyes flickering over to where Luke stood, a private smile on his lined face. “Rey Kenobi, ma’am.”

“I see.” Leia jerked her head toward the door. “There’s some food on the stove. Help yourself, within reason.” 

Rey bobbed an awkward curtsy, something clearly born of deference and not true etiquette, and Leia watched, amused, as she stumbled up the steps to Green Gables. Then, she turned her frown on her brother, who did not have the decency to look abashed.

“A girl.” She shook her head. “With  _ that  _ last name?”

“It’s fate, Leia,” Luke said softly. He rubbed his beard when she scowled deeper at him. “She knows Old Ben, even if she doesn’t remember him. I couldn’t send her back, not when - not when she needs us.”

“You old bat.” Leia brushed some traveling dust off her brother’s coat and sighed deeply. “Your soft heart and scrawny orphan won’t help us eat this winter.”

“But you won’t send her back?” He called out to her as she walked inside, and Leia shook her head, wiping her hands on her apron before opening the door.

“Not unless she gives me fair reason.”

* * *

True to her word, Rey Kenobi  _ was  _ strong. She lifted hay with Luke in the fields, pushed the plow through clumped dirt, and worked from sun-up to sun-down.

But, truer to her word, Rey Kenobi was smart. That summer passed with her dazzling Luke and Leia with her ability to run sums, and her eagerness to hear stories. And, even more fascinatingly, she  _ wrote  _ stories, stories she would share with Luke at the dinner table, long after supper was eaten, and Leia would find herself leaning in the doorframe to the kitchen, listening to Rey’s soft voice weave a powerful magic through the air of Green Gables. 

She was quick to laugh, and quicker with her temper, and always, always grateful for even the smallest kindness. Luke was taken with her from the start- Leia knew, even without the name of the man who’d helped him so much as a child, that Luke would have kept Rey when she stepped off the train- and Leia found herself very much adoring the orphan-girl by the conclusion of her third month with them.

Which was why she sat Rey down at the table with great excitement one evening, even her stoic disposition unable to be maintained in the face of so much joy.

“We have to talk to you about something, young lady,” Leia said, trying her hardest not to smile.

Luke was already grinning like a fool across the table, his hands folded on the cloth.

“Oh?” Rey looked between them, and then down at her calloused hands. “Is it - is it that I broke the dish this morning? I am- I am ever so sorry, Leia, I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again, I promise I was only distracted by a loud noise off the third pasture, which was actually Bessie giving birth, and-”

“Rey-child,” Leia covered her hands with her own, and Rey stilled, eyes wide. Leia realized it was the first she had touched the child in comfort since she’d come to Green Gables.

In a way, it made sense, and that kept the guilt at bay. They hadn’t send for a child to raise; they had sent for a worker. And Rey Kenobi  _ was  _ a hard worker, a diligent one. But somehow, along the way, she had become almost like a daughter to them, and that twisted Leia’s heart in ways she’d almost forgotten.

“No,” Leia shook her head and tilted her chin at her brother. “Luke, you best tell the girl; I’m afeared I might scare her out of her wits by accident if I continued.”

“Rey.” She turned to the man with her eyes still wide and scared. “We’re sending you to school.”

“To--” Rey’s jaw dropped, and she looked back and forth between them. “You’re sending me to-”

“Aye.” Luke ran his hand along Rey’s hair, which was loose around her shoulders, and Rey leaned into the touch like a sunflower toward the light. Leia squeezed her hands, suddenly wanting to do more. “A brain like yours shouldn’t go to waste out in the fields.”

“But you need me to help,” Rey protested, her eyes filling with tears, “You took me on to help, and-”

“And you helped us a great deal this summer,” Leia interrupted gently. They’d only intended to bring on a boy for the season, and release him in the winter.

Somehow, they couldn’t bear the idea of sending Rey Kenobi back. 

“Now it is our time to help you,” Leia finished, and Rey burst into tears, clearly mortified at her outburst as her thin hands clapped over her mouth immediately.

“Oh, child.” Luke got up out of his chair and scooped Rey up into a tight embrace. “Hush, now.”

Leia stood as well and rested her hand on Rey’s thin shoulder, and found that when she smiled at her twin, both of their eyes were misty with tears that could only be explained by that powerful, mysterious force that drives us all.

* * *

Rey made her very best friend in the whole wide world quite immediately upon entering the Avonlea School.

There was a kind-looking, black boy about her age who was staring at the trees when she marched up on her first day, her slate tucked under her arm, and her very best pinafore pressed and hanging smartly. Leia had braided her hair that morning- the first time Rey’s hair had ever looked so fine- and the birds were singing, and the world imbued with such a light and hope that Rey couldn’t see how things could ever go poorly again.

“Hello.” He smiled at her as she approached, and then held his hand up. “Wait a moment.”

Rey did, her eyebrows lifted already, and then she followed to where the boy stared.

A baby bird stood at the edge of the nest, wings trembling in the near-non-existent breeze. “And-” the boy breathed, and the bird jumped, spreading its wings and tumbling gracelessly into the air, past them both.

“Wow,” Rey gasped in joy as the bird flew away, and she imagined she could see it flying clear across the continent. “That was the most fantastic thing I’ve ever seen!”

“Wasn’t it?” The boy sighed happily and then held his hand out to her. “I’m Finn Calrissian, by the way.”

“Rey Kenobi,” she said serenely.

“Rey as in Raymond?” He asked, tilting his head, and Rey laughed, for the question wasn’t mean coming from the boy.

“No, Rey with an E.” She beamed at him, and then Finn bowed low.

“May I introduce you to the Avonlea School, Miss Rey with an E?”

“You may,” Rey curtsied back, and the two laughed together before the bell rang, announcing the start of class. They giggled and rushed in, Rey caught up entirely in the euphoria of wearing a new dress, a new hairstyle, walking into a new school, and having a new friend. A day of firsts, and her joy could not be contained.

And yet, it quickly was.

Ms. Kaydel Connix was not a mean woman, but a strict one, and the children had to be separated by age and gender. Finn, luckily, was also eleven- almost twelve, as she would find out at the morning break, just like her- but did sit across the schoolhouse with the young men. Rey sat next to a pretty girl named Jessika, who was kind enough, but did not seem to want to make friends as she was working on her primer, and Karoline, whose penmanship was nothing short of remarkable.

Rey whispered the compliment to her and won a smile, and her heart fluttered joyously; and then, Ms. Connix began calling out children to recite, and Rey froze in horror. 

“Recite?” She asked Jessika, who nodded grimly.

“Recite,” she confirmed. “From memory.”

That was typically how recitation worked, but Rey could not think of that response, as they drew nearer and nearer to her seat. At the very last moment, however, she was spared by Ms. Connix skipping over her entirely, and a new kind of shame flushed down her neck.

It was at the lunch hour that she requested to know why she had been skipped.

“I did not think you would be ready,” Ms. Connix said, not unkindly. “But perhaps tomorrow, if you would like?”

“Yes ma’am,” Rey muttered, not entirely sure if she  _ would  _ like that, but she at least knew the essay she should have to practice if she were to recite it on the morrow.

The next day, she got to school early, having practiced her essay over and over again into the night, at least two dozen times to Luke, and four times to Leia, who tired much more quickly than her brother, and another fifty times to her pillow when she should have been sleeping. Rey found that she was much groggier than normal in light of her lack of sleep and her nerves, but the sight of Finn waiting for her with an extra apple- and  _ oh!  _ Friendship was so glorious- cheered her greatly.

There was a commotion in the corner of the schoolyard, however, right before the hour they were to start classes.

A boy older than Rey and Finn had entered the yard, and boys were clamoring for his attention; Rey swore Temmin Wexley, a cute boy two years older than her who had caught Karoline’s eye (if the gossip at lunch were to be believed), climbed onto the fence to clap the newcomer on the back for half a second.

“Who is that?” She asked, her lip curling slightly at the churlish, raucous behavior of the boys. She did not care for noise, especially not after her time in the orphanage. Noise meant attention, and attention meant trouble.

“Poe Dameron.” Finn waved towards the group, and the boy- not very tall, Rey noticed, with a dark complexion and curls that were almost black in color- waved back merrily. “He’s a good buddy of mine.”

“Oh?” Rey felt a twinge of jealousy; she’d been so convinced Finn was meant to be  _ her  _ best friend, even if they were separated by gender in the schoolhouse. 

“Yes!” Finn smiled happily though, and Rey couldn’t begrudge him his accidental betrayal. “He should be with the older kids, but he took a few years off when his pa got sick. He’s technically with us.”

Rey had a flight of fancy that she couldn’t contain: an image of Poe Dameron (who, upon closer inspection, was awfully handsome, almost like a fellow from a novel_ with his sleeves rolled up, helping an older man who looked a bit like Luke in her mind’s eye, and she found herself feeling a fondness that wasn’t quite earned (but she was  _ sure  _ could be).

“He seems lovely,” she sighed, and Finn nodded, not having heard nor seen her wistfulness.

The bell rang, ushering them inside the building, and Rey stumbled up the step; her embarrassment flared worse than a wildfire when a hand caught her elbow, and she looked up, into the glare of the sun, at her saviour. 

Poe Dameron.

He smiled at her, his teeth white and even, and her heart did an odd dance she wasn’t familiar with. 

“Hello,” he said amiably, and Rey took another step, too surprised to say anything. “Who’re you?”

Rey shook herself, and, catching the hand of Jessika, who was waiting for her at the door, swept into the schoolhouse, a small giggle escaping her lips.

She settled into her seat at the edge of the girl’s half of the schoolhouse; Karoline, as it turned out, was unhappy with her beau, and had wanted to switch seats with Rey that day. This meant Rey could see her beloved Finn with much more ease.

It also meant she was less than four feet away from the handsome boy from the schoolyard.

“Psst,” he whispered to her when they were working on their sums. Rey’s eyes widened, but she didn’t look up from her slate, where she was working on a ferocious column of numbers. “Psst, hey!”

Rey shot him a look, askance, but kept working.

“Hey, Freckles,” he whispered, and Rey winced, her cheeks flushing in mortification.

She knew she didn’t have the smooth, fair skin of Ms. Connix, or the pretty complexion of Jessika; why Poe Dameron should have to point out her biggest flaw so casually was beyond her knowing, but she decided firmly against giving him any kind of attention, so he couldn’t see how hurt she was.

Yes, she would ignore him. That was her decision.

That was her decision, until Poe Dameron shot a look at Ms. Connix, who was up front helping a younger child with their figures, and then got out of his seat to tap Rey on the shoulder unexpectedly, whispering, “Hey, Freckles,” at the same time that he lightly tugged on a braid.

She did not see him stand, nor did she see him approach, so she did not anticipate any of that contact- and of course, Poe Dameron could not have known the horrors she’d experienced at Hopetown, the cruelty she’d lived through.

So, Poe Dameron was entirely caught off-guard- truly, as off-guard as she had been by his touch- when Rey Kenobi stood and shouted, “Don’t you touch me!” and smashed her slate into his head.

It broke with an almighty clatter, and fell to pieces on the floor. Rey stood firm though, her jaw set, and Poe stared at her in shock; tears filled her eyes, born of anger and humiliation, and Poe stammered an apology that she couldn’t hear for the wind blowing in her ears.

“What is going on back there?” Ms. Connix cried, sweeping towards them, and Poe shook his head, holding his hands up, still apologetic.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I was - I was trying to distract her, and she got rightfully startled. She broke her slate, that’s all-”

“ _ On your head,”  _ Jess muttered, eyes wide, but thankfully Ms. Connix hadn’t seen it for herself, only heard the noise as she helped a seven-year-old up front.

“Clean it up,” Ms. Connix sighed, already walking away, and Poe knelt to gather the pieces at the same time Rey did.

“I can do that,” she hissed through her teeth, still horribly riled up from being surprised. 

“Let me help, Freckles,” Poe muttered, but Rey shooed him away.

“Leave me alone,” she whispered, cheeks aflame. “Now.”

“Okay.” Poe stood, sheepish to the last, but Rey didn’t spare him a glance. “I’m sorry-”

“Here, Rey,” Jess got down to help her pick up the rest. “Let me-”

“Thank you,” Rey whispered to Jess. “That hateful boy-”

“Poe Dameron?” Jess picked up the last piece carefully and looked thoughtfully over to Poe, who was not five feet away from them. “He’s a good sort of boy, Rey-”

Rey scowled though, and Jess understood that battle was lost. They sat back in their seats for the rest of the lesson, and Rey was able to work from Jess’s slate. How she would explain to Luke and Leia that she needed a new one was beyond her reckoning, and she was already anxious for that thought as she walked out the doors that afternoon.

“Here.” Poe Dameron stood at the bottom of the stairs, his slate wiped clean with some water from the well. “You should take mine, considering yours is broken.”

Rey stared at him, uncomprehendingly.

“You should take it,” Poe urged, “No point in a needless expense because of my foolishness.”

“I don’t need your handouts,” Rey said coldly, deciding right then and there that he wasn’t that handsome, and she very much did not care for him. She brushed past him and met with Finn at the gate, who looked over her shoulder to where Poe was still standing, and the two boys exchanged a thoughtful frown that went very much unnoticed by Rey Kenobi, the proud orphan girl who lived at Green Gables.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!!


End file.
